Author
Topic: Bitcoin/Litecoin mining (Read 8661 times)

I'm totally new to this although I'm quite technically savvy. With dedicated units now being build that consume low power, is it worthwhile to start building a setup now with dedicated units using lower power?

I personally wouldn't lay down $20k ($200 x 100 units) but around $5k I would if the turnaround income was ok, i'm guessing the technology would be unsellable as well once new units arrive which is a bummer.

anyone here have a robust setup and want to chime in? GPUs mining is not worthwhile because of the high power consumption I'm hearing.

From what I have read about it, finding blocks or coins has become increasingly more diffucult. Big timers come in spending way more than 20,000 on a system. Small timers (like you would be) have a very difficult time making this a cost effective way to spend money. I once found a chart which compared processing power/expected rate of finding/payback. I can't find it anymore, but it essentially showed cheap rigs don't payback in a reasonable amount of time (if at all). Granted this depends on the going rate for the coin...

From what I have read about it, finding blocks or coins has become increasingly more diffucult. Big timers come in spending way more than 20,000 on a system. Small timers (like you would be) have a very difficult time making this a cost effective way to spend money. I once found a chart which compared processing power/expected rate of finding/payback. I can't find it anymore, but it essentially showed cheap rigs don't payback in a reasonable amount of time (if at all). Granted this depends on the going rate for the coin...

Mining is really expensive and it's hard to stay on top of the game in terms of equipment. Technology keeps changing and the big players are able to order equipment long before you are, so by the time you get your hands on the latest mining rig that is capable of producing at the current difficulty rate they've already got the next model on order. There's also the opportunity cost of buying the mining equipment versus just buying and holding the cryptocurrency. You could also mine altcoins and convert them to a more popular crypto but there's a lot of risk there, too. It's probably better to just buy & hold whatever crypto you're interested in.

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying or missing something, but I've always thought that if Bitcoin mining were so lucrative, all these companies that are making dedicated mining hardware would be putting it to use themselves rather than selling it to someone else. They must have a pretty good reason to expect they can make more money selling you the hardware vs. using the hardware to mine for themselves, and that should make you think twice about whether it is worth buying.